Choosing a Prep Course

[Mudd]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I just read brilliant comments from MeowMix, and decided that a thread should be dedicated to his or her comments:

Originally Posted by MeowMix:
If your goal is a very high MCAT score, then be very selective.

* Look for a superior instructor. Who will be teaching? What is their background? Don't be satisfied with answers like, you will have an expert in each field. Find out who the person is. Ask if you can meet them in advance. Get specifics. Companies do lie.

* Look for superior materials. Don't be snowed by a sales pitch that focuses on quantity and variety only. For example, online resources are crap if the web site is slow and they are little more than a static, web-based version of the print resources. Access to a large library of practice tests can be very handy, but only if the practice tests are comparable to the MCAT in difficulty and style.

* Access to the AAMC practice items and practice tests III-VI is desirable. Does the company include this in your course fee?

* Look at the teaching materials. Are they interesting to you? Pick one topic and compare. Whose explanations make more sense? Are more engaging?

* What if you have to take the course a second time? Do you get a discount?

Based on some of the comments my tutees have made and my experience working for a couple prep companies, I want to add and modify the list.

• 
  * Look for a superior instructor who specializes in their subject. Who will be teaching? What is their background? Are they an undergraduate? Will they be teaching one subject or several subjects? Don't be satisfied with answers like, you will have an expert in each field. Find out who the person is. Ask if you can meet them in advance. If you can, ask them to explain topics you find particularly difficult. Get specifics. Companies do lie.
  
  * Look for superior materials. Don't be snowed by a sales pitch that focuses on quantity and variety only. For example, online resources are crap if the web site is slow and they are little more than a static, web-based version of the print resources. Access to a large library of practice tests can be very handy, but only if the practice tests are comparable to the MCAT in difficulty and style. The most important part of any materials are answer explanations. The real learning occurs when you take practice passages and grade them. Well written answer explanations should explain both the facts and the test strategy.
  
  * Access to the AAMC practice items and practice tests III-VI is desirable. Does the company include this in your course fee? Do they have sessions dedicated to going over AAMC questions? Can the instructors explain how to answer each question in an effortless fashion? A good MCAT teacher should be able to make every AAMC question seem easy.
  
  * Look at the teaching materials. Are they interesting to you? Pick one topic and compare. Whose explanations make more sense? ...are more engaging? Could you learn a subect by reading their explanations? Does the style meet your needs in terms of details? Some students want concise presentation, because it is a review of stuff they know well. Other students need more details. match the materials to your needs.
  
  * What if you have to take the course a second time? Do you get a discount? Do they have a separate program aimed at second-time test takers? If you choose not to enroll in the course again, can you still attend office hours and the practice exams the second time?
  
  * Do they offer classes in both subject review and test strategy? Most courses have sales people that will tell you YES!, YES!, YES!!! to everything, so check their schedule for yourself.
  
  * Do you feel right in their classrooms? Will you be able to study in their environment? Are they supportive of their students both academically and emotionally? Ask students who have taken the class before if the course cared about them after their check cleared.
  
  * Do they offer quality office hours with teachers that know how to answer your questions? Be sure to ask if the office hours and tutoring are included in the course fee. You might be surprised to learn that a company will charge you extra for additional tutoring and office hours.

 

[steve007]

take EK, they were really good.

 

[Mudd]

BUMP

with the goal of getting more opinions that DO NOT list a specific course. Hopefully this thread can be a generic list of course qualities and not a salespitch for any single course.

 

[MeowMix]

For the April 2004 MCATers, I want to add a couple more things that I found out over the summer while teaching a prep course:

* Find out whether internet access is required for you to get the most out of the course. If so, will your 56K modem be fast enough? Will your AOL work with their web site? Be sure that this will be practical.

* If you will need access to printed copies of materials at the local center, find out when the hours are for access. Will they suit your schedule? Will you be able to set aside 8 hours for an AAMC full-length, for example?

* Be very sure that you understand the terms of any refund or second-time offer. Most of these have many conditions on them, and you may not qualify, for example, if you miss even one class.

* Find out exactly who will be teaching your class. Last year's best teachers may have all left for med school this year, and you may get inadequate teachers. What is your recourse if the teachers are poor?

 

[QueenVicious]

Thanks for the comments guys. I will soon be taking a course, but I'm still not sure which prep course should I take.

I imagine this has been posted previously, but can anyone share their experiences with these courses and say whether they thought that was the best course. Lately I've been hearing that ExamKrackers is the best.

 

[rjmst]

Originally posted by Mudd
BUMP

with the goal of getting more opinions that DO NOT list a specific course. Hopefully this thread can be a generic list of course qualities and not a salespitch for any single course.

OK now start posting specific courses. We're tired of this nonsense.

 

[QueenVicious]

 

[uclacrewdude]

Man, what a lot of BS the prior posters have been putting up. It's like this:

Take Princeton/Hyperlearning if you want to do well on Verbal and Writing
Take Kaplan if you want to excel on Physics and Bio

I took Hyperlearning and they were great b/c they gave me bucketloads of hw, review material, diagnostic tests (taking 6 simulated MCAT tests is the best way to prepare, hands down).

If you're a science major, I'd say take Princeton, since A) you're pretty solid on sciences anyway, and B) most people taking the test are science majors -- what's more impressive, a hyper-smart bio kid w/average verbal skills, or a pretty good science person with remarkably good writing skills? Most people excel on the sciences and go lower on verbal/writing, so make yourself a standout and do what it takes to get an awesome verbal, and even better writing score.

Honestly, I had a $hitty day for verbal (only got an 8 after getting 10's and 12's on the diags), but I did awesome on writing (Q). That was mostly thanks to the course. On bio I got 10, physics an 11 -- that was mostly my own doing (pretty much b/c I wouldn't study the ochem materials I was given b/c, hey, I hate chem).

 

[Mudd]

Originally posted by uclagotan8dude
Man, what a lot of BS the prior posters have been putting up. It's like this:

Take Princeton/Hyperlearning if you want to do well on Verbal...

I took Hyperlearning... ...for verbal (only got an 8...

I think that says it all about your opinion on this matter.

The idea was to put up generic comments and give advice how to select a program. Based on your verbal performance, I assume you missed the point.

 

[uclacrewdude]

Originally posted by Mudd
I think that says it all about your opinion on this matter.

The idea was to put up generic comments and give advice how to select a program. Based on your verbal performance, I assume you missed the point.

Yeah, you're right, I'm such a worse person for having got an 8 on verbal, and it says a lot more about me as a person than any of my other scores or anything else about me for that matter. Again, during interviews the fact that I got a Q on writing really did lend evidence to the fact that my 8 on verbal was a fluke. The thing is that you can't really make it about globally searching for "looking at the teachers" or "do you have access to printed materials" b/c there are two major test prep courses which are functionally the same except in terms of the emphasis they place on certain subjects. Besides, the worst advice you can give is generic, b/c that doesn't help you in your quest to get into med school. That's why there are professional advisors that get paid lots of money -- b/c generic advice by the schools doesn't help much at all.

Oh -- and I am loving every minute of med school, btw, so don't get high and mighty with me.

 

[Mudd]

Originally posted by uclai'minmedschooldude
Besides, the worst advice you can give is generic, b/c that doesn't help you in your quest to get into med school. That's why there are professional advisors that get paid lots of money -- b/c generic advice by the schools doesn't help much at all.

Actually, they get paid lots of money because certain pre-medicals students are desperate enough to pay them big bucks. A perfect example of a service that preys on the insecurities of pre-medical students is Inquarta. From what I can tell, the owner has never worked as a pre-medical advisor for any university, never sat on an admissions committee, never applied to medical school, and never in any way been involved in the application process.

But he gets the last laugh, because people pay thousands of dollars for him to give things they could have gotten for free elsewhere, just not in a convenient package.

And if you are so opposed to detailed generic advice, how come your advice is about as generic and trivial as can be?

If you need verbal, take X. If you need science, take Y.

That doesn't sound all that useful to me, given the many different types of learners there are. But to each their own.

 

[uclacrewdude]

Originally posted by Mudd
Actually, they get paid lots of money because certain pre-medicals students are desperate enough to pay them big bucks. A perfect example of a service that preys on the insecurities of pre-medical students is Inquarta. From what I can tell, the owner has never worked as a pre-medical advisor for any university, never sat on an admissions committee, never applied to medical school, and never in any way been involved in the application process.

But he gets the last laugh, because people pay thousands of dollars for him to give things they could have gotten for free elsewhere, just not in a convenient package.

And if you are so opposed to detailed generic advice, how come your advice is about as generic and trivial as can be?

If you need verbal, take X. If you need science, take Y.

That doesn't sound all that useful to me, given the many different types of learners there are. But to each their own.

I don't see how saying if X then Y and if A then B is anything but specific, especially when the top two test prep courses in the nation are practically identical in terms of teaching process.

Actually Inquarta did a hell of a job getting me in to med school. I seriously wouldn't have gotten in without Don Osbourne's help. Wrote a bitchin personal statement and awesome secondaries, conquered my AMCAS, and rocked the interviews b/c of the advice and guidance they gave me. Was it too pricey? Probably, but the convenient package works, again b/c a lot of public schools do such a terrible job advising students with anything other than generic advice. I mean, when you took anatomy as an MS1, didn't you ask "which anatomy book do i buy?"? You sure did, b/c you were either told by other students or by your syllabus to specifically buy Netters, correct? You don't buy random books for your classes, despite there being many good textbooks on any given subject. Generic advice is stupid, especially for your average premed student who is busy doing other things just to make themselves more competitive.

 

[MeowMix]

The whole point of generic advice is for people to be able to ask the right questions and MAKE UP THEIR OWN MINDS!

I don't think people should make $1400 decisions based on what some anonymous person recommends on SDN.

Put it this way, if you had to decide how your physician should treat your Stage IV colorectal cancer (surgery? chemo? rads?) , would you learn about the issues and ask the right questions to make an informed decision, or would you get on an anonymous web site and ask people what worked for them?

 

[lynnier79]

MCAT scores really tell NOTHING about how good or bad a person you are. i think that is the BS of this post. how well you do on this test doesn't say a thing about you as a person. we really need to stop making the connection between good scores and good people.

UCLACREWDUDE -- does an 2k erg score make someone a good rower? probably not. i know many lightweight crews that can slaughter heavyweights... and thats NOT because they are stronger. same analogy for the MCAT score.